So-called service vehicles are well known and utilized in many fields. Typically, the service vehicle is a truck having a forward cab and an open, rear deck flanked by side compartments. Such vehicles are utilized by, for example, utilities in servicing electrical distribution systems as well as telephone lines. They are also employed by mechanics who are required to travel to remote sites to perform mechanical work on equipment located at such sites requiring maintenance and/or repair. Service trucks are also utilized by the tire industry in servicing off the road vehicles at remote locations, agricultural equipment such as tractors, and even servicing the tires on vehicles where the tires have blown or otherwise deflated at a location sufficiently remote from a fixed tire servicing location that the vehicle cannot be moved thereto for tire servicing.
In the usual servicing operation, the deck is used as a support for equipment to be utilized in the servicing operation. For example, utilities may place electrical transformers, rolls of cable, etc., on the deck of the service vehicle for transportation to a point of use. Similarly, mechanics may place repair parts on the deck while tire servicing operations will typically transport tires and/or wheels on the deck.
Many of these articles are extremely heavy and difficult to load and unload from the deck. Moreover, in some cases, as in utility applications, it may be necessary to lift a piece of equipment to a relatively high location on a utility pole or the like. As a consequence of this, many of these vehicles are provided with small cranes for loading and unloading the deck as well as lifting equipment to a point of use. The crane will typically be mounted right behind the cab or, in the case of medium or light duty service vehicles, near the rear of the vehicle on the right side thereof. Conventionally, the crane will be rotatable about a vertical axis and have an extendable boom which may or may not additionally be articulated. In any event, when the crane is being utilized to move a load, the right rear location of the point of attachment of the crane to the vehicle imparts substantially torsional and lateral stress to the deck of the vehicle which can ultimately lead to fatigue of the deck and/or its supporting structure and ultimately, require replacement thereof.
Heretofore, the problem of fatigue due to torsional and/or lateral loading has been solved by utilizing what amounts to oversize structural members of sufficient mass to provide a high degree of resistance to fatigue due to the undesirable loading characteristics. While this solution works for its intended purpose, it has one major drawback.
As is well known, vehicles are designed with a maximum gross vehicle weight in mind. In the case of service vehicles, the maximum gross vehicle weight includes not only the weight of the vehicle itself, but the weight of operators as well as the weight of material being transported by the vehicle. Consequently, where torsional, lateral and axial loading resistance is provided by oversizing frame members in the service body, there is a consequent increase in the weight of the service body. This, in turn, reduces the payload that the vehicle may carry and still be within its maximum gross weight limit.
The present invention is directed to solving one or more of the above problems.